Remember League of Evil [$1.99]? It came out early last year, and the best way to describe it is the title of our review: "The closest thing to Super Meat Boy on iOS." League of Evil controlled great, making difficult Super Meat Boy-style platforming surprisingly fun. They even eventually added iCade and Joypad [Free] support, giving two more awesome control options. Check out the recently released trailer for the sequel: I'm digging the new art style. February 15th can't come quick enough.   #3   Today, 01:57 PM Senior Member iPod Touch (4th Gen), iOS 4.x Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Indiana, USA Posts: 6,369 friggin AWESOME!!! Can't believe I missed this one... thank you for making it free... the game looks pretty different (graphically) from Lyst Ignition... =oD Picked it up and played it through a quick game. I like the premise of it and can see that there is Read More

In early February of this year, we learned that a rogue developer named Daniel Blezek was spending his spare few minutes in-between a full time job and a full time family life toiling away at bringing Bungie's seminal FPS Marathon to Apple's iPad. The port was in progress at the time and looking great, but there was still a bit of uncertainty whether or not a release of Marathon would completely jive with some of the rules of App Store and the open source licensing of the codebase. Then in June, Bungie sort of shocked everyone by announcing that they had picked up the project and would be officially supporting its release. Just a couple of weeks later, on Bungie Day no less, Marathon 1 [Free] launched for the iPad and we thought it was pretty dang awesome. Perhaps the best part was the choice of business model, as the entirety Read More

OrangePixel have a few iOS platform games under their belt. Back in June, we reviewed Meganoid [$1.99] calling it a quality retro platformer with responsive controls. In September, our review of Stardash [$1.99] highlighted the challenging difficulty levels and Game Boy style presentation. Plus they've released Super Drill Panic [$1.99] and Time Chaos [99¢]. Now, OrangePixel has released their latest action platform game, named simply: INC [$1.99], which is probably my favorite of their releases. INC uses a comic-inspired silhouette art style which immediately captured my interest. Your character is a square with legs and blinking little eyes who runs, jumps and shoots his way through levels that are intentionally pixelated with rough edges. The graphics are 8-bit and chunky, with backgrounds reminiscent of Canabalt [$2.99]. And there's a chip-tune soundtrack, which is always popular in any retro platform game. Another distinctive feature is that when you fire your gun, the word Read More

...most talked about #iPhone app in the last 24hrs was: Joypad Lite http://t.co/oUU8insz... Read More

posted by Jacob Penderworth on Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 12:30 pm.   The popular wireless game controller app Joypad for iPhone has now received a price cut from $1.99 to free. This means that you can control the NES emulator on your computer without the need of a USB controller. And, you can do it without the need of annoying wires since Joypad uses either Bluetooth, Ad-hoc or WiFi to connect to the host. The free version includes a standard, but beautiful skin with the usual A, B, D-pad, start, and select buttons. You can customize the layout to your own feel if you don’t like the default one. Alternate skins are also available as in-app purchases for $.99 each. These range from GBA to SNES and there are a total of eight available. Go grab your copy of Joypad at the App Store here and game on! Read More

Back in April we told you about Joypad, the US$1.99 app that lets you use your iPod touch or iPhone as a classic joystick controller for game emulators on your Mac. It works by connecting to your computer via Bluetooth once users have also downloaded the Joypad Connect software for their Mac or PC. Joypad has caught on among gamers and now the app is a free download. The free app comes with Game Boy Advance, NES, SNES, Genesis and N64 gamepad skins. Users can buy additional skins for $0.99 each, including Game Boy, Game Boy Advanced, Famicom, and others. Developers can also download the Joypad SDK, which will allow them to enable their iOS games to work with the app (Unity support is coming). Current iOS games that offer JoyPad support include Meganoid, Stardash, Arcade Jumper, Super Drill Panic, Ghost Ninja: Zombie Beatdown, Ninja USA, Vertex Blaster, Super Mega Worm, Read More

Touch devices have revolutionized mobile gaming, just like they’ve revolutionized the mobile space as a whole. For mobile games, they’ve introduced some amazing interfaces and controllers that make those that have had the fortune of playing Atari on console take a step back and pinch themselves. Of course, technology is now taking us toward a confluence of consoles and touch devices. Today, companies like Joypad Inc. are turning our iPhones into game controllers. Joypad’s eponymous free app syncs directly with iPad, Mac, and PC games over bluetooth or WiFi to let gamers use their smartphone as a controller to play their favorite games on various NES-style control pads. Game developers can also use Joypad’s free SDKs, which take about 30 minutes to integrate, to add Joypad support to their games. With these SDKs, gamers can interact with their favorite games in ways that were before impossible. For example, as a gamer Read More

Touch devices have revolutionized mobile gaming, just like they’ve revolutionized the mobile space as a whole. For mobile games, they’ve introduced some amazing interfaces and controllers that make those that have had the fortune of playing Atari on console take a step back and pinch themselves. Of course, technology is now taking us toward a confluence of consoles and touch devices. Today, companies like Joypad Inc. are turning our iPhones into game controllers. Joypad’s eponymous free app syncs directly with iPad, Mac, and PC games over bluetooth or WiFi to let gamers use their smartphone as a controller to play their favorite games on various NES-style control pads. Game developers can also use Joypad’s free SDKs, which take about 30 minutes to integrate, to add Joypad support to their games. With these SDKs, gamers can interact with their favorite games in ways that were before impossible. For example, as a gamer Read More

One of our very favorite not-a-game-itself-but-is-still-gaming-related apps in the App Store is Zell Application’s Joypad Game Controller [Free]. We reviewed the Joypad this past February, and in short it turns your iOS device into a customizable virtual control pad for playing games on your computer. You just run the app on your device and then it very easily connects to a desktop client on your computer over Bluetooth or a local WiFi network. You’re then free to map the virtual buttons of the Joypad to the keyboard controls of whatever game you’re playing, or choose from the many preset configurations, and just like that you’ve got yourself a competent little game controller. Naturally, it’s not quite the same as having a physical controller, but if you like to travel light or find yourself needing to get your game on in a pinch it more than does the trick. Heck, I use Read More

[$.99/Lite] is one of several games on the App Store that I think would be even better with peripheral support. And, hey, conveniently enough, it now supports two of the biggest, new-fangled controllers/apps on the market: the Joypad [Free] and iCade. This support comes packaged in a new update which rolls in a much-needed bug fix for the side-scrolling action game’s IAP, which was prone to crashing according to user reviews. Also, if you’re still in the seasonal mood, Super Mega Worm vs. Santa [Free] also now supports both of these controllers since it's been included in Super Mega Worm proper as of this update, too. Neat! For those of you not on the controller beat, the iCade is a peripheral that looks like a mini screen-less arcade machine. Just plop your iPad in, pick one of the few games that supports the device, and enjoy using joystick and buttons. We Read More

I’ve been a pretty big fan of the Joypad Game Controller [Free] ever since we reviewed it back in February. In a nutshell, Joypad allows you to display a selection of different virtual controller types on your iPhone or iPod touch. You then pair the Joypad app with a desktop client via Bluetooth or WiFi which remaps keys on your computer's keyboard to the virtual buttons of the Joypad, and remaps mouse movement to the accelerometer. This allows the Joypad to control games on your Mac or PC, and makes for a very capable substitute controller when you don’t happen to have a real physical controller handy. While that’s pretty cool in and of itself, the team behind Joypad have taken things a step further and released an SDK which allows any developer to implement Joypad support into their games natively, bypassing the need to pair with the desktop software. This Read More

Das iPhone, insgeheim der perfekte Joystick? Wer die Finger von der Computertastatur nehmen möchte, legt Hand an die iPhone-App ‘Joypad – Game Controller‘ (kostenlos; App Store-Link) und bewegt damit seine Videospiel-Helden durch ihre Welten. Eine kleine Server-Applikation übersetzt per Bluetooth oder WiFi die Touchscreen-Eingabe in Tastaturbefehle. Die Verbindung im gleichen Netzwerk geschieht automatisch. Es ist jedoch auch eine direkte Ad-hoc-Verknüpfung vorgesehen. Je nach Titel muss über das PC- oder Mac-Programm die Joypad-Konfiguration angepasst werden. Voreinstellungen für bekannte Emulatoren und derzeit populäre Games wie Portal oder Minecraft sind bereits voreingestellt. Mit dem kostenlosen SDK bekommen App-Store-Entwickler die Möglichkeit, diesen Steuerungsmechanismus auch in ihre eigenen iOS-Programme zu integrieren. Die erste Implementation findet sich innerhalb der nächsten Tage im Jump’n'-Run ‘Lars‘ von Icarus Interactive (1.59 €; Universal; App Store-Link). ‘Joypad‘ ist kostenlos und soll in Zukunft über In-App-Käufe, beispielsweise für Controller-Skins, ein paar Euro verdienen. Das Programm kostete zuvor 10 Euro (App Store-Link). Wer Read More

A couple of weeks ago, we learned that Ten One Design was getting ready to release a smaller version of their wonderful Fling controllers for the iPad which would be suitable for use on iPhone and iPod touch devices. There was a lot of negative backlash to this announcement though, and I can sort of see why. The promo image for the Fling Mini showed that using 2 of the controllers at the same time really blocked much of the screen of the device, and it was hard to imagine how it could be practical to play games this way. Last week at WWDC, Eli and myself both got our hands on an early pair of the Fling Minis and put them to the test. Surprisingly, the screen blockage is almost a complete non-issue when you’re actually using the Fling Minis. The plastic that the Fling Mini is comprised of is Read More

Back in February, my jet-setting TouchArcade cohort Eli Hodapp found himself wanting to play some video games on his laptop while on the road. Not one to carry around a bulky Bluetooth controller just for that specific purpose, he came across a novel little app called Joypad [Free] which was a suitable alternative. Basically, the Joypad app runs on your iPhone or iPod touch and turns the device into a wireless controller for your computer with a highly configurable set of virtual buttons. The Joypad app syncs up with a desktop client which allows it to be used to play any game by remapping the keyboard controls to the virtual buttons on the device. It works really well, is fairly easy to setup and get running, and is a great companion for the traveling gamer, as we noted in our review of the Joypad. So since that time, the two man Read More

Recently I embarked on a quest to see if there was a way I could stream my PC games to my iPad using the various remote desktop apps available on the App Store. Initially, this resulted in countless hours (and dollars) wasted, only to be disappointed time and time again. Some apps had no audio, others were nowhere near responsive enough, and some of them just flat out didn't work-- Then came Splashtop Remote Desktop [99¢ / Lite / HD]. Splashtop is a remote desktop client that streams your PC or Mac screen directly to your iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone with amazingly fast response times, and full streaming audio. Installation and setup couldn't be easier. All you do is install the desktop software and download the app and you're up and running. Keep in mind, using Splashtop outside of your local network will require fiddling with port forwarding, and unless Read More

I travel a ton, both for many of the conventions and events we cover on TouchArcade, as well as because staying in one place for too long is boring. Traveling a lot is liberating for many reasons, but mainly because you realize just how little of the stuff you own you actually need. Specifically, from a computing standpoint, I've got my entire infrastructure down to a single laptop bag which houses absolutely everything I need for TouchArcade and all other things I use my computer for. When bag space is at a premium, you rarely have room for any "unitasker" as Alton Brown puts it, which sadly leaves many traditional gaming accessories without a place in my mobile arsenal. I've made a special exception for the Fling iPad joysticks, but I haven't had an actual USB gamepad for ages. Normally this isn't much of an issue, but since 2011 is the Read More